Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-05-08
OF 1887.
Figures Showing How Fast Europeans are
Canning to America.

III us -S"
Coming to America.
!speciI Correspondence Of the Sunday Register.
NEW YORK, May 5.-Any hour of the
day that l traverse the streets Of lower
New York l meet strange professions, men
and women in queer clothing, carrying
queer bundles and chattering in strange
languages. They are Italians, Poles, b.
hemians, Russians and more rarely Swedes
and Irishmen. 1t is the first wave Of that
enormous immigration which is promised
some would say threatened-iOr the year
1887. Already the arrivals amount to
1000 a day. One vessel lately wrecked on
Long Island had over ! 200 Italians aboard.
If the rate is northumberland the agents
tell US it will be greatly increased-the in
fux of Europeans this year will vastly eN-
received 1873, 1872 immigrants; and there is
every reason to believe that this year the
number will exceed 200, 600.
But the character of the immigration
has greatly changed. Germany now sends
us but One-third as many as she did six or
seven years ago, and Irish immigration,
which had sunk to a very low level, and
revived a little in this decade, is now fall
ing of. Ireland and Germany have dis
posed of their surplus population for the
present, and there is room at home for
their increase for a few years. The u
tries showing Al immense increase are
Russia, Austria, Italy and Hungary.
These figures indicate their growth: In
| 'lD D,,,,,, cont -, . 80. l,p+ ,anr ~ uS-
Austria's contribution has grown from
!, 7O7 to 10, 772; Hungary's from Ii, 100 to
1875. On the other hand, Germany sent
us 1913, 4GS in -; in SO but 1861, in
"a al, 922. the next year %, Ill and last
year only az, 090; and Ireland, which sent
! -, 76S in 'S3, last year Sent but 3 6,4i6.
OF the newcomers the Russians present
rather the best appearance. being tall,
vigorous and with an air of resolution.
They are chiefly from the grain growing
regions of the Black sea and the Danube,
aud many OF them are not Russians In
| blood, as people Of other races have long
been located there.
In 1917 Castle Garden was set apart for
immigrants, and Il saystem of registration
established: and thence to April l OF this
year :, 456, 279 have landed there. The
Irish immigration, which was notable rs
early as 1880, reached its maximum in the
years following the famine, and in one year
nearly 200, 600 lriShmeI landed at Ameri-
can ports. And, strange to say, the immi-
grafton to Australia and Canada was rs
large in proportion. Hence these startling
effects on the island: In ISL Ireland on
tanned :, 1876, 597 people; IN 1851, G,574,-
27l; in lS7e, 5~,I12,377, and in lSSl, only
5,174, $50.
Before our war it was a subject of fire.
qucnt remark that only 5 per cent. OF the
immigrants settled in the slave States, and
it was only natural to expect that enamel
patton would bring q change; the foreigner
shuns the competition of the freedman
more than he did that of the slave, as only
, per cent. now 20 South. Last year 300
SS7 immigrants registered their destina-
ton, and only Z, l26 went to the South.
Connecticut received S,O23, Illinois, 2j,-
sos; Minnesota, T., 3l7; Wisconsin, 9,l45;
Pennsylvania, IL, los many miners among
them, and New York 1O9,55i. Not only
do they 20 North, but to the extreme
Northern belt. OF the ll6, 600 SwedeS
who have landed at New York in five
years, three-lourths went directly to the
far Northwest; and of tho 81, 905 who
registered their destination last year
seven-eighths went northwest Of Chi
cago. The census of 1880 showed
that while the centre of total popula-
ton was nine miles southwest of Gin
innati, the center of cOlOred population
was as far southwest of Macon and that OF
foreign Just southwest of Toledo. That OF
1890 is likely to place it even north OF
that parallel, for the Scandinavians 20
where their neighborS and kinSmen have
already gone. The immigration from
England is %singularly even, varying but
little either way from 40, 200 ayear. Last
year it was / 1925. These are mostly
middle class farmers and artisans. The
S~candinavians are very much OF the class,
and the Russians and Austrians but little
poorer; hut the Poles, Hungarians, BOhe-
mians and Italians are from the poorest Of
the poor in those lands. 1t is a serious
question how far this sudden addition OF
200, 600 people will affect the labor mar,
ket; and, if the influx continues, whether
we shall be able TO work them over SC
fast into good American citizens.
j. III. PARKE.